Matthew and Maria Monger's Blog

Village (by Maria)

mamonger — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:26:45 +0000

Yesterday we had our first day in the village of Fatoma as language students, it’s amazing what you can be able to communicate, even with the very few words we know. We are lucky to have a wonderful nanny for Mia, Lalla, that is more than happy to welcome us to sit with her family, and is patient enough to repeat the words we ask about. Taking pictures, and recording the right words at the same time, just taking in all that surrounded us. Chickens; only one day old, the thick millet drink, witch we later were served, Matthew managing fine, me giving what I could to Mia, leaving the rest to sit. They taught me how to make some local decorations (see picture), rubbing a stone onto a calabash, making it white and decorative. Quite a lot of work, so I ended up buying the ones Lalla’s sister already had finished. The big marked day was also held in Fatoma yesterday, and I was quite excited to find fresh goat skins at the butcher, paying only 20kr (3$) for beautiful brown skins with white spots. I left them for Lalla’s sister to clean and supposedly there is something she could treat the skins with to keep them soft. We also found (this is probably gonna sound a little tacky) a marriage pillow, that the Tuaregs makes out of leather. A few nights earlier “little Muhammed” came to our house trying to sell us one of those for not less then 1000kr (150$). We did not buy it, since the price was ridiculously high. We asked for the price at the market – 70kr (11$). Out of spite, we bought it, that felt really good, and I can’t wait to have little Muhammed come back, having such great proof of his efforts to rip us off! At least this one time he didn’t manage to trick us!

A taste of winter

mamonger — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:10:56 +0000

Sitting here in the warm sun looking back at a wonderful taste of winter in Norway. We had quite a trip home, on the way to the airport Mia got covered in red spots, at the hotel the morning of our flight we got a hold of a doctor, afraid that it was the chicken pocks, since you’re not allowed to fly like that. This was the 22. of December, so we didn’t really have much time to loose if we were going to make it home for Christmas! The doctor stated firmly that this was just some kind of allergic reaction, revealed we continued our drive to the capital. That evening, only three hours before we were to leave for the airport, Mia’s fever rose to 104 degrees. We gave her Tylenol (paracetamol), and put her on malaria medication as well, hoping the fever would go down a little. It didn’t, at least not very much. We repacked our bags, Matthew was ready to bring the boys to Norway, I was realizing that staying behind with the baby, might be the only sensible thing to do. With great help from one of our missionaries in Bamako, we got a hold of another doctor, asking the question we did not want a negative answer to, “can she fly?”. She asked if Mia had any problems breathing, and made sure we had given her the malaria medication and paracetamol and ibuprofen. She said we should go, “the doctors at the airports in Paris are better than here anyway!” We waited for a while in Paris while our plane was snowed in at the airport in Bergen, and when we finally got to board the plane, I started throwing up. When our plane landed in Bergen, tears came to my eyes, I had never thought we where going to make it home for Christmas, and there we were, the 23rd of December at home, just in time. I can’t remember my parent’s house looking prettier, the food smelling or tasting better, the joy of being around family being greater. We had a wonderful Christmas, and were blessed to be home when my grandma died, we got to stay with her the last days of her life, and could be of support to our family in that time.

It was great to be united with friends and family once again. Having some maternity leave saved up, me and the kids got to stay with family in Bergen for a whole month. We also had a short trip to eastern Norway celebrating New Years Eve with friends in Kolbotn, Mias (and Regines) 1 year birthday was celebrated in Revetal, before we went back to Bergen for the funeral. The kids enjoyed the snow, I was quite happy to get back to Mali where it didn’t take me an hour to get the kids dressed!

Learning Fulfulde

mamonger — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:45:17 +0000

Since we got back to our home here in Mali we have started learning Fulfulde. It is a great feeling to finally be working with the language that I will (hopefully) eventually be translating into. Maria and I have about 3-3½ hours of lessons ever day. For now, our lessons are mostly spent listening, pointing and “doing” verbs. We are learning to understand the names of animals, things, foods, utensils and so forth. We learn this by starting with two items, such as a cow and a horse. Our “teacher” points at the cow and says “nagge” and the points at the horse and says “puccu”. Then he asks “where is the cow” and “where is the horse” in fulfulde and we point to the right animal (hopefully). We then add other animals and things until we have between 10 and 20 new words.

Also, we learn verbs for things like “walking”, “running” and “sitting” by our teacher giving us commands “STAND!” “SIT!” “WALK!” or describing what we are doing “You are sitting” “Maria is standing”. Thus we learn a lot of different words and verb forms. Yesterday and today we did body parts for people and animals. Some of the easier ones to remember were “Elephant Arm” meaning “trunk” and “bird hairs” meaning “feathers”.

The picture is a typical sight from our daily sessions.

Back in Mali

mamonger — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:14:19 +0000

This past week I was at a workshop at the annual meeting of a group of translators working on the Bible in other dialects of Fulfulde. The meeting was in the capital of our neighbor to the east. I experienced no problems there, even though events the week before my trip there made the situation slightly tense.

Each year this group gets together for a time of training, planning and networking, with the goal of producing better translations in Fulfulde. Right now there are translation projects for Fulfulde dialects in Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria and 2 in Niger. This time there were representatives from 6 of the 8 projects. Most of expat workers (called Linguist/Exegetes) were from English speaking countries, so it was a great time of getting to know people that I will be working with over the next several years.

There were especially 2 people that stood out for me. The first was an American girl who has been in Africa for 13 years. When I heard her name I said “she must be a Mennonite” So we got to talking and I told her I was from Virginia, and she looked pretty surprised and asked where in VA, and I told her and she said “That’s where I was born!”

Another person I got to know is working with the Fulfulde dialect that is most closely related to ours. He is a great guy, we both got pretty excited at the prospect of using computer technology so that we can work together and “adapt” our translations to and from our dialects. If we can get things to work out we will likely make a big impact on the amount of time needed for translating the whole OT.

All in all it was an inspiring week. Now I just have to learn Fulfulde! Well I guess that can wait for next week.

Golf!

mamonger — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:17:47 +0000

Today I played golf. Not on a simulator, not in the sandbox in the backyard, but real golf. In Mali. After over 4 months in the country, I finally got the chance to visit Bamako Golf Club, located at a Hotel in town. It’s not surprising that I haven’t played yet since it is 640 kilometers from our house, but that’s beside the point.
I played a quick practice round while my caddy showed me where the holes were and such (9 holes) then played my first 18 since leaving for Mali last summer. And boy did it feel good. It took a few holes to get things going, but in 80 degree (27C) temperatures with the sun shining and literally no one else on the course, I settled in quite well.

Those who don’t care about golf can stop reading here =)

My highlights were birdie’s on the 133 yard (122 meter) 6th and 15th (same hole). The first time we watched as my ball came down in the hole and popped out, rolling to about 15 inches. The second time around I rolled 4 feet passed the hole and made the putt. The other highlight was the 185 yard par 3 18th where I hit a 5-iron to 12 feet and made the putt. In the end I broke 70, shooting a 68. It would sound even better if the course wasn’t par 58….

Another great day here in Bamako. Considering my family and friends are snowed in and it is January I couldn’t be happier!

The first picture is how you get an “island green” in Mali: you surround the green with a cement trench and then fill it half the way up with water. That one is the 8th/17th. The second photo is where I got a free drop for fear of giant turtle. It was GUR anyway….

In the City

mamonger — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:56:25 +0000

This week I have been seeing a different side of Mali. I have been in the capital, Bamako, for a meeting with the translations team and supporting missions. While I am here (without Maria and the kids) I have had the chance to do a couple of things I hadn’t done yet.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to church in town, an evangelical protestant church with services in French. It was really fun, I suspect more for me than my Norwegian colleagues, simply because there was so much that was familiar. Everything from asking visitors to stand up, identify themselves and explain why they were there to someone introducing and praying for the guest preacher before the sermon. Up front there was a choir wearing choir robes who sang the obligatory song during the offering and assisted during the singing of hymns. The hymns were songs familiar to me from my early years in Virginia, so familiar in fact that it wasn’t hard to sing along in French. I did, however, give in to the urge to sing in English when we started on “There is power, power, wonder working power…” The difference, however, was in HOW things were done. Obviously the language was different, but the sounds were too. Anyone who has heard of Amadou and Mariam, a musical duo from here in Mali would recognize the sound that accompanied the hymns (if not look them up on YouTube and listen to “Dimanche à Bamako” (Sunday in Bamako). That is the sound and style that the power power power was sung to.

After church I went with my Norwegian colleagues to a park in the city that was built for the 50-year anniversary of Malian Independence this year. It is a beautiful park with open spaces, green grass, playgrounds and still ponds. A really tranquil and relaxing place to take a walk on a Sunday afternoon. The temperature was around 80 degrees (27C) with a slight breeze, not bad for Mali!

After our walk we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant downtown. One thing is for sure Chop Suey is Chop Suey no matter where you get it!

After reading and relaxing all afternoon I went to be quit content having been on “vacation” for a day in Bamako!

2010 in review

mamonger — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:14:32 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,000 times in 2010. That’s about 10 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 24 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 32 posts. There were 63 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 8mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was October 29th with 216 views. The most popular post that day was A day in the life of Petter and Andreas.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, familienslettbakk.blogspot.com, touch.facebook.com, mail.live.com, and itisinyou.info.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for maria monger, mamonger.wordpress.com, mamonger wordpress com, monger blog, and matthew og maria monger.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

A day in the life of Petter and Andreas October 2010
1 comment

About us June 2009
3 comments

Food here in Mali (by Matthew) September 2010
1 comment

Happy New Year! New Baby! January 2010
8 comments

What would you take to Africa? August 2010
1 comment

Free time

mamonger — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:03:50 +0000

Now that we have been in Mali for a few months we are starting to find things to do in our free time. Here are some of the things we do:

The only golf course in Mali is in Bamako 400 miles away, but that doesn’t stop Matthew from getting ready for next year’s Monger Open. Luckily the back yard is one big sand-trap.

Maria has taken up sewing. She has made cushion covers for all the sofa and chair cushons as well as pillow cases and blankets.

Andreas loves to draw, color and write his name. He saw a Mickey Mouse movie where Mickey was writing with a feather – so of course he had to try that!

Petter and Mia love to play on the floor. Driving little cars around or chasing the Zhu Zhu Pet.

Sometimes on the weekend we wash the car together. Kind of hard to believe that it is december when we can splash each other as much as we want and not get cold! It’s not that easy, though, to wash the car with a boy in the bucket!

We also enjoy going swimming at the pool at a hotel in town and going for hikes on the hills just outside of town. We really are thinking of all of you all back in Norway and the US having the coldest winters in a hundred years!

Cold weather

mamonger — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:05:47 +0000

Cold weather has come to Mali. The past few mornings the boys have begged me to get them dressed as soon as they get up. The eat breakfast wrapped in blankets and even asked me to turn on the heat in the car today when I drove them to school. It was 68 degrees (20C) ! It still gets pretty hot during the day, above 90 (32C), but at night when it gets below 70, we sleep really well!

Today, when I dropped Andreas off at his classroom at school, I saw that there was a picture of Santa Clause on the blackboard. Today they are going to talk about Santa! I can’t wait to hear what he has to tell us about the Malian version of Father Christmas.

Life is good! (posted by Maria Monger)

mamonger — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:31:36 +0000

We just had a wonderful weekend at Teriya Bugu. We drove 300km from home, the last hour on a bumpy dirt road that took us out into the bush. The goal was a small hotel under the tall eucalyptus trees on the river. We got our own little hut (with beds and air-condition), and spent most of our time by the pool, trying desperately to get a tan (you would think that would not be a problem when you live in Africa, but with all the clothes we have to wear the sun barely gets to any body parts at all!) We took a boat ride to see the sunset on the river, no need to say that that was a beautiful sight. It was a good place to go with kids, in addition to the pool, they loved the playground, the animals (some monkeys, snakes and crocodiles in a cage), and of course to hang out with their two friends. We enjoyed hanging out with our friends as well, and are very thankful that they showed us this beautiful place for recreation.